Using one session per request, how to handle updating child objects - asp.net

Question

I'm having some serious issues with Fluent Nhibernate in my ASP.NET WebForms app when trying to modify a child object and then saving the parent object.
My solution is currently made of 2 projects :
Core : A class library where all entities & repositories classes are located
Website : The ASP.NET 4.5 WebForms application
Here is my simple mapping for my Employee object:
public class EmployeeMap : ClassMap<Employee>
{
public EmployeeMap()
{
Id(x => x.Id).GeneratedBy.Identity();
Map(x => x.DateCreated);
Map(x => x.Username);
Map(x => x.FirstName);
Map(x => x.LastName);
HasMany(x => x.TimeEntries).Inverse().Cascade.All().KeyColumn("Employee_id");
}
}
Here is my my mapping for the TimeEntry object:
public class TimeEntryMap : ClassMap<TimeEntry>
{
public TimeEntryMap()
{
Id(x => x.Id).GeneratedBy.Identity();
Map(x => x.DateCreated);
Map(x => x.Date);
Map(x => x.Length);
References(x => x.Employee).Column("Employee_id").Not.Nullable();
}
}
As stated in the title, i'm using one session per request in my web app, using this code in Gobal.asax:
public static ISessionFactory SessionFactory = Core.SessionFactoryManager.CreateSessionFactory();
public static ISession CurrentSession
{
get { return (ISession)HttpContext.Current.Items["current.session"]; }
set { HttpContext.Current.Items["current.session"] = value; }
}
protected Global()
{
BeginRequest += delegate
{
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("New Session");
CurrentSession = SessionFactory.OpenSession();
};
EndRequest += delegate
{
if (CurrentSession != null)
CurrentSession.Dispose();
};
}
Also, here is my SessionFactoryManager class:
public class SessionFactoryManager
{
public static ISession CurrentSession;
public static ISessionFactory CreateSessionFactory()
{
return Fluently.Configure()
.Database(MsSqlConfiguration.MsSql2008.ConnectionString(c => c.FromConnectionStringWithKey("Website.Properties.Settings.WebSiteConnString")))
.Mappings(m => m
.FluentMappings.AddFromAssembly(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()))
.ExposeConfiguration(cfg => new SchemaUpdate(cfg).Execute(false, true))
.BuildSessionFactory();
}
public static ISession GetSession()
{
return (ISession)HttpContext.Current.Items["current.session"];
}
}
Here is one of my repository class, the one i use to handle the Employee's object data operations:
public class EmployeeRepository<T> : IRepository<T> where T : Employee
{
private readonly ISession _session;
public EmployeeRepository(ISession session)
{
_session = session;
}
public T GetById(int id)
{
T result = null;
using (ITransaction tx = _session.BeginTransaction())
{
result = _session.Get<T>(id);
tx.Commit();
}
return result;
}
public IList<T> GetAll()
{
IList<T> result = null;
using (ITransaction tx = _session.BeginTransaction())
{
result = _session.Query<T>().ToList();
tx.Commit();
}
return result;
}
public bool Save(T item)
{
var result = false;
using (ITransaction tx = _session.BeginTransaction())
{
_session.SaveOrUpdate(item);
tx.Commit();
result = true;
}
return result;
}
public bool Delete(T item)
{
var result = false;
using (ITransaction tx = _session.BeginTransaction())
{
_session.Delete(_session.Load(typeof (T), item.Id));
tx.Commit();
result = true;
}
return result;
}
public int Count()
{
var result = 0;
using (ITransaction tx = _session.BeginTransaction())
{
result = _session.Query<T>().Count();
tx.Commit();
}
return result;
}
}
Now, here is my problem. When i'm trying to insert Employee(s), everything is fine. Updating is also perfect... well, as long as i'm not updating one of the TimeEntry object referenced in the "TimeEntries" property of Employee...
Here is where an exception is raised (in a ASPX file of the web project):
var emp = new Employee(1);
foreach (var timeEntry in emp.TimeEntries)
{
timeEntry.Length += 1;
}
emp.Save();
Here is the exception that is raised:
[NonUniqueObjectException: a different object with the same identifier
value was already associated with the session: 1, of entity:
Core.Entities.Employee]
Basically, whenever I try to
Load an employee and
Modify one of the saved TimeEntry, I get that exception.
FYI, I tried replacing the SaveOrUpdate() in the repository for Merge(). It did an excellent job, but when creating an object using Merge(), my object never gets it's Id set.
I also tried creating and flushing the ISession in each function of my repository. It made no sense because as soon as i was trying to load the TimeEntries property of an Employee, an exception was raised, saying the object could not be lazy-loaded as the ISession was closed...
I'm at lost and would appreciate some help. Any suggestion for my repository is also welcome, as i'm quite new to this.
Thanks you guys!

Answer 1

This code
var emp = new Employee(1);
foreach (var timeEntry in emp.TimeEntries)
{
timeEntry.Length += 1;
}
emp.Save();
is creating a new Employee object, presumable with an ID of 1 passed through the constructor. You should be loading the Employee from the database, and your Employee object should not allow the ID to be set since you are using an identity column. Also, a new Employee would not have any TimeEntries and the error message clearly points to an Employee instance as the problem.
I'm not a fan of transactions inside repositories and I'm really not a fan of generic repositories. Why is your EmployeeRepository a generic? Shouldn't it be
public class EmployeeRepository : IRepository<Employee>
I think your code should look something like:
var repository = new EmployeeRepository(session);
var emp = repository.GetById(1);
foreach (var timeEntry in emp.TimeEntries)
{
timeEntry.Length += 1;
}
repository.Save(emp);
Personally I prefer to work directly with the ISession:
using (var txn = _session.BeginTransaction())
{
var emp = _session.Get<Employee>(1);
foreach (var timeEntry in emp.TimeEntries)
{
timeEntry.Length += 1;
}
txn.Commit();
}

Answer 2

This StackOverflow Answer gives an excellent description of using merge.
But...
I believe that you are facing issues with setting up a correct session pattern for your application.
I you suggest to take a look at session-per-request pattern
where in you create a single NHibernate session object per request. the session is opened when the request is received and closed/flushed on generating a response.
Also make sure that instead of using SessionFactory.OpenSession() to get a session try using SessionFactory.GetCurrentSession() which puts the onus on NHibernate to return you the current correct session.
I hope this pushes you in the right direction.